Hope this makes sense from my morphine filed hospital bed.

Yesterday’s commute home turned interesting when crossing a roundabout, turns out that hi vis and flashing lights render you invisible to cars. Big bang, lots of air time then straight down on to my lower back.

Very shaken,apologetic driver, details exchanged and photos taken.

Lift home wasn’t too bad, but once the adrenaline wore off things took a turn for the worse, culminating in a pair of ambulances outside.

First three hours of corridor queueing and x-ray of my very sore pelvis went fine. Pelvis and hips looked fine on x-ray so they took the brace off.

What followed was several hours of off-the-scale pain in my side and hip. Got rushed past the queue, many more and varied scans, and at midnight was informed I have fractured four of my lower vertebrae.

Looks like three or four months of the bike. Hurrah. anybody want to buy a Haldon Heroics entry in April?

Now the important bit. I’ve not seen my bike yet, other then when we passed each other in mid flight. I glimpsed a damaged shifter and bar tape, I have no impact damage on my body from the car so the bike must have taken the full force.

Anybody know what I should do next? Police were informed from home, they want a report in the station when I can. I have the ambulance report, and there will be plenty of medical paperwork,possibly time off work.

Do I contact the drivers insurance direct and start a claim? My lovely mint Escapade is probably bent, do I get a valuation and claim for replacement? What sort of of compensation could I expect for the damage to my person?

Time for more medicine..

Ow. Get well soon.

Are you a British Cycling member? They have legal cover. Or you may have legal cover with your house insurance. Were you hit from behind?
Speedy recovery and hope you get it all sorted.

I’ve got no advice on what you do now, but that sounds proper shit! Hope you get well soon, healing vibes.

Sounds awful, i think some driver’s tiny brains just can’t handle the extra thought power to worry about cyclists at roundabouts! As above, I’d get on to british cycling 1st if you’re a member. If not, you may want to contact a personal injury lawyer and let them worry about (for a fee of course). Not a route I’d normally advocate, but your injuries sound pretty bad and it seems likely you’ll need lots of time off work and physical rehab.

Been through something like this with the mrs and starting another one with my dad who was hit head on by a french driver.

Record everything. Take photos of any bruising that comes up to suppliment your medical record.

Keep a diary of time spent in hospital/in your bed /not working /pain and time your mrs has had to give up to look after you. Keep all reciepts for related travel and expenses.

Basically your losses – these are different to compensation.

But data is king.

Where are you ? Cycle law scotland and motorcycle law scotland have been invaluable. – they are the same company but use specialist lawyers who are cyclists and motorcyclists them selves. Their advice has been very helpful.m

I think some specialist bike injury ambulance chasers, (slightly tongue in cheeks, sounds like you are rightly due a load of legal help) advertise in the back of cycling weekly. If you are not a BC or CTC member I’d go with a firm with more cycling focus.

And best of luck with your recovery. That sounds like it could have been so much worse than just bones. 😥

^^^ what trail rat says up there ^^^

All of the best in your recovery.

Thankfully you’re not claiming off the hospital for paralysis! I’d be speaking to your house insurance as above to see if you have any legal cover. I’d avoid the sharks at no win no fee at all costs. Something like this with injuries like that will surely result in a good payout which in my opinion you’re bloody entitled to!
Get well soon!

Bloody hell OP, glad it was not worse.

I’d not contact the insurer direct. I’d contact BC regardless if your a member or not and see if they can recommend a PI solicitor in your area.

As others have said, makes mots of notes of what you’ve done, where you have been, times taken etc.

Get well soon.

Rest up and heal quick!

Make sure that the Police acknowledge a report has been made within 24 hrs. Insurance will try and wrigggle out any way they can and may claim you did not report it properly within 24hrs if you’ve not walked into a police station and reported it yourself. Some kind of reference (as they normally include the date) would be a safe bet.

No advice to offer but heal soon. Very glad it wasn’t a worse outcome.

Get well soon.

I’d imagine a substantial PI payout for those injuries. Well into 4 figures, if not 5.

Anything damaged by the driver should be replaced.

Read this What to do after a collision

Can someone report my post and ask the mods to make the link to the Lfgss page a sticky? It seems to be a pretty regular question at the moment unfortunately.

Bails, done.

OP, crikey hope you make a fast and full recovery. Lots of good advice above, but have you got someone to help you do all the “running around” so you can concentrate on getting better?

Definitely do this through a solicitor. My wife used our home insurance legal cover when hit from behind. The solicitor they appointed was great at chasing both her and the other party; and she got much more money than she expected. She was lucky in that police attended, so there was no dispute on blame, and she’s a doctor so was good at recording/describing her injuries – the only issue to resolve was how much compensation for the injuries. I’d go for the back-of-cycling-weekly ambulance-chaser style solicitor for an incident as big as yours.

I can very much empathise with you OP.
Got knocked off my road bike last Sat – though nowhere near as serious as you by the sound of it.
No police or ambulance at the time as I said I didn’t need one – though I did end up going to A&E to get checked out and have X-rays – no broken bones but it was me that took the impact as opposed to my bike.
A bit battered, bruised and cut but that’s it.
Driver reported it to police and claimed liability but it’s taken a lot of chasing on my part to even get paperwork sent out so I can get my version of events on record – not impressed with police.
Contacted driver direct (police said I could) to see if she wanted to resolve it person to person or my solicitor to her insurer…she wants to do the latter as I want a new helmet, bibtights and the bike has been assessed in a shop as instructed by solicitor. They think it’s ok but cannot guarantee it won’t fold when I next ride it – I’m submitting the letter that’s very much weighted towards could be fatally damaged route.
I can claim for minor physical injuries etc but as there’s no long lasting obvious damage to me I’m not really bothered – I just want a bike I know is 100% roadworthy. This will be a drawn out affair but I should get lid and bibs replaced and hoping her insurer thinks it’s not worth their risk by letting me ride round on a potentially borked bike. I won’t ride it until it’s replaced…not sure what I’ll do it if isn’t 😕
It was naive of me to not get the cops involved there and then but TBH you’re hardly thinking straight in the immediate aftermath of an RTC.
Hope it all goes ok and you’re back on the bike sooner rather than later.

contact a bike legal claims company,

ctc, Bikeline, cycle aid etc, lots in the back of cycling mags.

oh and make a good recovery.

yep go with the ambulance chasers in this case.

Mrs was recently in similar-sounding accident (lights, hi vis, daylight, t-boned on roundabout) but with less serious injuries than you, and when she rang the driver’s insurance, the person on the phone tried to wriggle out of all sorts by sounding plausible and concerned but reassuring her that this and that was OK -she smelt a rat and took advice from our local cycle campaign group who told her they were (of course!) minimising their losses, so she got a claims company involved. Since then she’s had fantastic private physio, helmet replaced and bike fixed for free and i believe her employer is also claiming from them for the day off sick she took.
I guess ordinarily this is lust like what your own motor insurance would do if you were in injured in a car on or a motorbike and not at fault, so i use the term ‘ambulance chasers’ in a more gentle/lighthearted way than I do when i am the (metaphorical -actually I am a nurse) ambulance driver.

Mate, I am also recovering from accident, so healing vibes to you, just get better, put yourself first, demand the best care ….

The driver has legal obligation to report to police if someone has been injured.

if you are gonna need surgery to repair the vertabrae, it is quite likely to be a life changer, – deffo start a diary and a claim

Jesus! Nightmare.

I have dealt directly with a car insurer myself in the past and it was fine BUT there was no personal injury then. I would be very reluctant to be dealing with the driver’s insurance company directly esp when you’re all zonked out on painkillers!

Thanks for all the support, the neurosurgeons have decided that I’m in no danger of significant issue, other than a few months off driving, riding, twisting and lifting. I may need a brace for a bit, but they want to get me up and moving small distances to help heal correctly. Pelvis is probably OK, hips seem fine.

The police did not attend, but the ambulance crew logged it with the police when they first arrived to scoop me up. We’re due to fill in some forms at the police station next week, if I’m out of hospital. We’ve also spoken directly with the insurance company, the ‘bodily injuries ‘ team are due to call Monday morning, but so far are taking it very seriously.

Very sorry for myself, bored of staring at the ceiling, will keep you all posted as things progress.

enjoy the morphine, but avoid the co codamol…..- the cure is worse than the disease
get moving as much as poss- a moving back is a healthy back

Very sorry for myself, bored of staring at the ceiling

“The life, of a wife…”

I’m assuming you’ve got a partner/friends to bring essentials (pron, mags, grapes, pizza etc?)

from a compensation perspective…

Mate fell off his bike when a dog ran in front of him. Broke his arm, ruined a really old and pretty much worthless bike, and ruined a few items of clothing

Dog owners insurance tried to wiggle out of it. Mate got a friend of ours who is a lawyer to make a claim. Their first offer was 3k…within a day it had been raised to 11k! So I’d say you should be looking at something like that as a starting point…

I have to say I was astounded he got 11k out of it, but there you go…

I’d have expected way more than £10k, a mate got bad whiplash (not imagined) and got £10k.

Heal up quick

Hope the OP heals up quick, that is pretty shit

I love a bit of road riding but I’m beginning to wonder if its really worth it. Seems to be more and more of these incidents recently. Hardly a week goes past without a forumista reporting an accident

Get well soon OP, hope it all works out.

How you doing? Feeling better?

Evening all.

Feeling much better today, aching all over from too much time flat in bed (didn’t know that was possible), and as long as I’m VERY careful there isn’t significant pain. However, if I put any weight at all on my right leg without being absolutely vertical it’s like being stabbed in the back with a broken bottle. Also, my core muscles refuse to do what I ask, I’m like a pair of legs and a torso with nothing connecting them, can’t even sit up without using my arms and various grab rails.

I can very slowly get out of bed using my arms to take all the load, and abusing the uppy downy need buttons a lot. Getting back in its even slower and that’s when the stabbing pain is worst. When vertical I can shuffle around like an extra in a classic zombie movie for a few minutes before I’m knackered.

Physio have started the torture, the nature of the fractures means it’s a case of just dealing with the pain for 8 to 12 weeks, they can’t operate unless the fractures get worse and impare my spinal cord, but that’s not likely.

After an encouraging first call with the car insurance company (we’ll call first thing Monday, priority claim, walk us through the process) they’ve done a complete about turn and today refused to talk AT ALL except through a solicitor. Ctc have recommended one, we’re starting that process now.

Fed up with bed and aching, and need desperately to get some sort of exercise before I explode. Might start zombie shuffle timetrials of the ward tomorrow.

On a plus side, I can still walk. Slighty different landing and a fracture a few mm to the side and this might be a much worse story. Looking forward to my two girls visiting tomorrow, the last time they saw me four paramedics were strapping me to a board and shoving me in a an ambulance. That must have been terrifying for them.

Right, time for a morphine addled nap in a room full of hip replacement patients. Oh what fun.

today refused to talk AT ALL except through a solicitor.
This is a good thing, they are taking this VERY seriously.
Now, let your legal eagles 😀 do there stuff and concentrate on getted yourself sorted.

I’m sending a big chunk of healing now………. brace yourself!

Hi Kaysee – nothing to do with the legal side of things, but I had a similar accident a few years ago. Hit by car (Ok, technically the car was hit by me…) and fractured L3, L4 & L5 vertebrae. No spinal cord damage and no op, on my feet again as soon as they got me fitted with a brace. Brace for 10 weeks, no bending at the waist for all of that time – i.e. standing up straight or lying down flat only!

Recovery went well, was painful to begin with, but manageable. Just very boring! I walked up Ben Lomond about 8 weeks after the accident (with my brace on!). Was riding my bike gently, swimming and going to the gym as soon as I got the brace off. Worked hard on re-habbing my core and my flexibility. Managed to sneak away on a New Year snowboard trip (accident was in July) and climbed Mont Blanc (and snowboarded back down!) in April.

10 years on and I have no lasting issues at all. Occasionnally some stiffness in the lower back after a big day on the bike or if I’m doing a lot of high-impact snowboarding, but I’m not sure it’s anything beyond what anyone else would be feeling!

Just thought you might like to hear a successful healing story!